25K to get vaccine in 1st phase in Chandigarh

Naina Mishra
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 11

Once available, the city will administer a Covid vaccine to at least 25,000 beneficiaries, comprising healthcare workers, police and the MC staff, in the first phase.

According to the data prepared by the UT Health Department, over 12,000 healthcare workers will be administered the vaccine, along with 7,000 police personnel and 6,000 MC workers.

A team of the MC has been engaged in contact-tracing and quarantining patients since the start of the pandemic. While there is no official intimation from the Centre on the time of the vaccine rollout, officials have been told to have the arrangements in place.

The vaccine will be procured by the District Vaccine Store (Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16) from Government Medical Store Depot (primary vaccine store), Karnal. City officials were expecting a vaccine to arrive by January first week, but following the recent recommendations of the subject expert committee on December 9 regarding examining the vaccine under an

accelerated approval, the process may get delayed by a few weeks.

Dr Amandeep Kaur Kang said: “Keeping in mind the momentum at which we have been directed by the ministry to upscale the work of cold chain logistics, the vaccine was expected to be rolled out by the first week of January. However, a specific time period is yet to be intimated by the Centre as the authorisation of a Covid vaccine is also awaited.”

The Covid subject expert committee asked the Serum Institute of India to update the safety data of the phase II/III clinical trial of the Oxford vaccine in the country and immunogenicity data from the clinical trials in India and the UK.

While Bharat Biotech was also asked to present the safety and efficacy data from an ongoing trial, Pfizer requested more time for making a presentation before the committee.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the Central Government with the district task force and block task force is likely to take place in the coming days to discuss the progress on multi-level coordination for the distribution of the vaccine.